It is 10 years since the Booker prize expanded its remit to include American novelists. The naysayers’ fears would appear to be borne out by this year’s longlist in which six of the 13 novels are by Americans, with just three British writers, Samantha Harvey, Sarah Perry and American-born, British-Libyan novelist Hisham Matar. Last year both the long and shortlists were dominated by Irish writers (and people called Paul), but only County Mayo’s Colin Barrett makes it this year. This means that the most feverishly anticipated novel of the year – Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, due out in September – didn’t make the cut (she was longlisted for Normal People in 2018). It also leaves off Irish heavyweights Colm Tóibín with his sequel to Brooklyn (longlisted in 2009), former Booker winner Roddy Doyle and Kevin Barry. Other high-profile names missing include the three-times shortlisted Anita Desai, Rachel Cusk and David Nicholls, who proved that popularity isn’t always a curse when he was longlisted in 2014.
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Cape)
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (Daunt)
James by Percival Everett (Mantle)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Cape)
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Cape)
My Friends by Hisham Matar (Viking)
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud (Fleet)
Held by Anne Michaels (Bloomsbury)
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Harvill Secker)
Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (Cape)
Playground by Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann)
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking)
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (Sceptre)
